Antique folk art sculpture Man with a Cap with Original Blue Paint and a Tin Visor. Collection Jim Linderman

Antique folk art sculpture Man with a Cap with Original Blue Paint and a Tin Visor. Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Drawing of Haley's Comet 1910 on a piece of Birch Bark circa 1910 Folk Art

A scarce period Drawing of Haley's Comet circa 1910 on a piece of Birch Bark. A drawn by hand postcard. It's a curious one...a boy rushes in riding the comet with a net to collect mosquitos! Of course there was worldwide panic at the time. A good share of the fear came from religious nuts. My favorite factoid is that the impending doom resulted in a run on "anti-comet umbrellas" and protective pills. Collection Jim Linderman BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE AVAILABLE HERE ON BLURB.COM

Pair of Anonymous 19th Century Drawings collection Jim Linderman

Pair of Anonymous 19th Century Drawings collection Jim Linderman

Israel Litwak Mountaindale, NY 1938. Self-Taught "Primitive" art Outsider Collection Jim Linderman

Israel Litwak Mountaindale, NY 1938. Self-Taught "Primitive" art Outsider Collection Jim Linderman Another work by Litwak is shown in a post from a few weeks ago. Scroll Down!

Antique American Folk Art Button Table Mat

A somewhat obsessive table mat with over 1,000 individually sewn buttons, circa 1940. 18" x 30" with irregular patterns. The piece is sewn over thin cardboard mailed from Sears to Maine...and an old spaghetti box! Hand-sewn folk art button collection sewn on a table mat. Circa 1940. Collection Jim Linderman Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Antique American Folk Art Sculpture Woman with Necklace 19th Century

Antique American Folk Art Sculpture Woman with Necklace Life sized. Three views. Collection Jim Linderman

Anonymous Folk Art Wood Carving of a Native American

VERY fine cult braids (unbroken) on an undated Native American folk art wood carved bust.
Date unknown, Collection Jim Linderman

Billy Burke's Toothpick Park American Folk Art in Place IN SITU the BOOK by Jim Linderman

As the note on the reverse asks, how could anyone have so much patience?  He was in stir.  The Greybar Hotel.  The slammer, the cooler, up the river.  Actually Billy Burke was in Folsom Prison and time kept dragging on.  Joe Yerz helped.  There is a FILM!
  
Billy Burke Toothpick Victory Funzone c. 1940  Collection Jim Linderman from the book
AMERICAN FOLK ART IN PLACE: IN SITU now available HERE in paperback and instant
PDF Download.

American Folk Art in Place: IN - SITU The BOOK by Jim Linderman Available NOW!

AMERICAN FOLK ART IN PLACE: IN-SITU by Jim Linderman is NOW available.  A large format vintage photography book which reveals hundreds of folk art environments and unique folk art sculptures as installed over the years.  The book documents numerous outsider art installations (many previously unknown) and photographs of known and unknown artists at work.  All photographs will be drawn from the collection of Jim Linderman, whose previous vintage photography books include the ground-breaking Take Me to the Water,  The Birth of Rock and Roll and Arcane Americana.  The book will be the companion to Eccentric Folk Art Drawings of the 19th and 20th Centuries from the Linderman Collection.  Same size, same format and also available as an affordable instant download e-book. American Folk Art In Place: In-Situ is a much expanded and revised edition of the now out of print original book of the same title.  Details and a free preview of the book will follow.  Inquiries to J.Winkel4@gmail.com 

Shown:  Untitled snapshot (Feed the Monkey) unknown location, circa 1950.  Collection Jim Linderman

Early American Folk Art Carving of a Man

Articulated Early Folk Art Carving (detail) Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art FREE AIR Sign circa 1930? Petroliana and gasbag comments from Fox News

CLICK TO ENLARGE

An antique folk art FREE AIR sign, original paint, 30 inches long.  Inflating your tires correctly, it is generally agreed, can same some 3% of the gasoline used by your car, not to mention helping your automobile to run properly.  Multiply that by the number of cars.  Simple, right?

Not when it comes to the President of the United States, who the gas bags of wind at Fox News have told lies about ever since he took office.   Why?  Big Petroleum, Big Business and Big Deceit.  Above clip from Fox News website 2008.  

Antique Sign collection Jim Linderman

Patrotic Peace Parade Plywood Float! World War Two Dove of Peace Folk Art

 

Initially I thought this was a somewhat primitive church piece from a somewhat primitive alter, but it didn't take me long to realize it is a parade float fragment from the end of World War Two.  Over 4 feet long and nearly as tall, the dove of peace would wiggle along the parade route on the wire stand.  Two-sided plywood with creamy white paint on the letters and dove,  a nice red base with a hole to connect it for the slow ride through town.

Peace Plywood Parade Construction circa 1945 Collection Jim Linderman

SEE ALL AVAILABLE BOOKS (AND $5.99 eBOOKS) BY JIM LINDERMAN HERE

Wood Man with Saw Sawn From Wood Folk Art

The last time I wrote about chainsaw carvers, I received hate mail from a chainsaw carver!  Now I didn't see those slasher and slicer movies, but I do NOT want to piss off anyone with a chainsaw this time.  So let's just say this is something for the contemporary chainsaw artist to aspire to.

Believe it or not, the chainsaw was invented back in 1785!  Jeepers!  That seems to be a long time to perfect the craft, and I will let others debate whether the craft IS an art this time.  This is a good carving, no matter how it was done.  I think it is art.

Real Photo Postcard, 1936.  Garden City Grange Fair Collection Jim Linderman

Tweet

Sock Doll Make-do Depression Doll

Make-do doll made long ago found today.

Sock Doll Circa 1930 Collection Jim Linderman

Folk Art Sculpture Man with a Bowler c. 1900 Collection Jim Linderman

Man with a Bowler Hat Folk Art Sculpture, 15 inches tall, 27 inches around.  Circa 1900  Collection Jim Linderman

Linderman Books and eBooks for iPad HERE at Blurb.com.  Browse, Preview each, order.  Thanks!

Etui Etui ??? Homemade Folk Art Needle Case

Etui   ???   Edui is another name for a needle case.  Well, sorta.  So let's just use needle case.  A handmade one, with felt, feedsack printed cotton, some trim...and a nice little tab of paper above from where this little lady once lived in a scrapbook but was torn out.  She has had a few lives.

An odd thing, as printed needle cases and needle books were literally given out free.  
SEE HERE  
Still, someone took the time to make it, the least I can do is scan it.

 

Depression Era handmade Needle Case  Collection Jim Linderman

Two Million Dollars of Folk Art Cigar Store Indians Trade Store Figures Real Photo Postcard (And a Favorite Photograph)

The June 8, 2010 auction at Heritage Auction Galleries which set a record for a Cigar Store Indian (over $200,000 for the splendid figure here) may mean what you are seeing above is a few million dollars worth of wood. A Real Photo Postcard, circa 1940, of a most extraordinary collection of carved trade store figures. Quite a group. The piece sold above had exceptional original paint, and often these figures have had repaints over the years. The last photograph, a particular favorite of mine, shows my father and a friend, circa 1935, likely in upstate New York.
Anonymous Real Photo Postcard (Group of Carved Trade Figures and Cigar Store Indians) circa 1940 Kodak "EKC" logo on reverse Collection Jim Linderman

Crazy Concrete Monumental Monolith of Ed Galloway Cement for Sooners

Imagine my surprise when I learned this 90 foot cement tribute to an imaginary mish-mosh of Native American Tribes not only still stands, but it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places! (Not the more exclusive register of Historic LANDMARKS, but still) I thought I had just bought yet another photograph of a long forgotten goofy thing. Goofy it may be, but it was carefully restored and repainted by the Kansas Grassroots Art Association. That it is in Oklahoma seems not to have mattered to the Kansans. It is claimed to be "The World's Largest Concrete Totem Pole" (um...yeah, duh) but maker Ed Galloway cheated...he built it on a giant five foot tall turtle barely seen in the photo.

This Press Photo dates to 1947, just about near the time Ed claimed it was finished. It was even given an unusual amount of respect at the time from the press...note the text on the reverse says nothing about Ed's mental state, though if you look really close you CAN see they titled the caption "Monumental Joke." They also call it "grotesque" and infer it was made to trick future paleontologists. However, as Ed is passed away now, I can question his sanity! What crazy Okie would build a giant cement totem pole?

Whether Ed's mind was fit as a fiddle is questionable, but he made fiddles too...400 of them, though many were stolen out of the Fiddle house he also built next to the totem to hold them a few years after he passed away.

Ed's pole is estimated to weigh 134 tons. The big goobers on the side here also still remain. Ed mixed up his tribes a bit, putting some traditional Northwestern motifs down in the Sooner State too. In fact, the Indians Ed is depicting in his gravel and stone monolith are in a way responsible for the State's nickname, as after having driven them all further west (or 6 feet underground for good) the territory was opened up for all (All Non-native that is) in a giant landrush...and the cheaters who snuck in early received the more charming name of Sooners.

Ed Galloway was born 20 years before Oklahoma became a state, and started building his thing thirty years after.


Original Press Photograph 1947 Collection Jim Linderman

Folk Art Sign of the Egg Rolling Out the Beatrice Trade Sign

Anonymous Snapshot, circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman

I Desire a Return of Affection: Calling Cards and Tokens of Affection

These weren't made with a dull tool or a dim bulb. Often sold by traveling salesmen for a dollar a bundle, these engraved paper tokens were given as polite gestures, presented for thanks and left in a small tray near the doorway for visitors. I've touched on calligraphy in an earlier post, it was a skill which used to be taught to children in school. These are all printed examples, but hand drawn ones are only a little harder to find, they are often glued in scrapbooks or at the bottom of a box of paper objects. Each is smaller than a credit card. Assorted Calling Cards and Tokens of Affection. C. 1860-1890. Collection Jim Linderman